Is this a pest?

[Westeri]

By chance, I saw this item in my refugium.  Anyone happen to know what it is?  Kind of surprised I managed to catch it since it was under a ledge and I couldn't see what I was doing while trying to catch it.  Sorry, no scale reference in pictures, but I would estimate it near size of rice.

I may have damaged it during the capture.  First picture is from when it was in the tank.



Next few are under normal lighting in a petri dish.







Now finally with some blue light shining on it.





Kind of wish I had a macro lens for this.  So, does anyone have a name for this critter?

[Westeri]

Well, now it seems to be two separate items, so I don't know if I caught two of something just yet, or if it has torn.

[discus513]

Looks like it may be a type of flatworm to me, it is hard to tell but the upside down V at the bottom looks to be a tell tale sign, it there are not flatworms It could be some type of Nudi. What did you find it on? the glass a coral, fish ect?

[Twizted1]

Looks like a flatworm to me. Did you coral rx those corals you got?

[Wall_Tank]

flatworms on glass in your fuge are probably not harmful.  Although the ones I see are very small(smaller than rice sized) and brown.

[Westeri]

Looks like it may be a type of flatworm to me, it is hard to tell but the upside down V at the bottom looks to be a tell tale sign, it there are not flatworms It could be some type of Nudi. What did you find it on? the glass a coral, fish ect?

I found it on the glass under the overflow box and it moved to the plexi that was the bottom of the overflow box.

Looks like a flatworm to me. Did you coral rx those corals you got?

I had not RX dipped them as I was unprepared when they arrived with my cleanup crew.  I did move my two corals to QT about a week or two ago so there are no corals in main system at all now.  The new corals I got from Indy Saturday as well as the small pipe caulestra were dipped Saturday night.The other coral I didn't dip because it had feather dusters and I wasn't sure how they would react.

[Westeri]

Having a name starting point for a search, I guess it could be one of the 'Benign' flatworms.

http://www.melevsreef.com/critters/benign-flatworm

[Westeri]

So, I found this in my main tank today, should I assume that this is a species of Aiptasia of which I have read?



Although, I don't see a main trunk on this, I suppose the trunk could be down in a hole under the disc.  After poking at it a couple of times with a pointer it did seem to withdraw down into a hole, though its tentacles were still sticking out of the hole.  I seem to remember reading that peppermint shrimp will eat Aiptasia, should I consider getting one to see if it will eat this and then let it roam the tank looking for any others I may not yet see?

[Twizted1]

Yep it's an aptasia. Peppermint shrimp do eat them when they are smaller. With your set up you could move the shrimp around as needed and house them anywhere when they've done their job.

[Westeri]

Thank you for the confirmation.  Think I will try the peppermint shrimp and see if it really does eat these things.  While they may advertise better living through chemistry, I think I would at least like to attempt a "natural" solution first.  Although, since this is the only one I see, experimentation could be bad as opposed to just removing the rock from water and baking it in an oven for a few hours or something.  I suspect a couple of hours at 400 degree will nicely kill anything in/on that rock.

[Blazinreef]

Baking it will also make your house smell absolutely awful as everything on it cooks...

[Steve]

If there is 1, there is more. I have yet to see a hungry peppermint shrimp not eat aptasia.

[Westeri]

Guess it is time to get a peppermint shrimp or two.  I assume they will eat leftover food if no aiptasia.

[Wall_Tank]

Peppermints are good scavengers.

[cbenner]

I'm surprised that dude came around with dry rock,  take some two part epoxy stick.  Knead some up and stick it overtop of that aptaisia. 


Happy Reefing!

[Westeri]

I may give that a try, although I may also get some Peppermints to patrol the rest of the tank, since there could be others I cannot see at this time.  How many would be a good number for a 180 gallon tank?  Start with maybe 3 of them?  I have seen once suggested stocking ratio of 1 per 10 gallons, but that seems a little extreme to jump from 0 to 18 overnight (assuming I can find 18).

[chevydoc]

I havent had luck with peppermints. Ive been fighting these stupid things for years. Thought about trying a nudi that eats them.

[Wall_Tank]

The aptaisa eating nudibranch work, but once they are gone will starve to death.   And more than likely the aptaisa will come back.

The Copperband Butterfly will eat them too, but they are ich magnets and can be tough to get through quarantine.

[chevydoc]

My tank is only 30 gal. So the butterfly wont work. Im close to upgrading tanks so any rock that has it on it is gonn a stay dry for a while